SEATTLE -- Martin Martinez says the small, private collective and outreach group he runs from a storefront are legal, a place for medical-marijuana patients to get help growing the medicine they need to manage their pain.

One of the earliest advocates for what became a voter-approved state medical-marijuana law 10 years ago, Martinez says he hasn't handed out pot, nor grown any in his cramped office.

But Tuesday afternoon, Seattle police, armed with a search warrant, carted away marijuana and hundreds of private patient files, and tore down a wall in search of a marijuana patch that didn't exist. King County prosecutors say the raid was justified. Martinez's neighbors have been complaining about a pervasive smell of pot, they said, so authorities need to figure out whether Martinez has been breaking the law.

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Law-enforcement officers who detect the odor of marijuana from a vehicle can't arrest all of the occupants, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

In a unanimous ruling, the court determined the smell of pot isn't enough probable cause to warrant the arrest and search of everyone inside a car. While smell alone may be reason for a vehicle search, the court determined, it doesn't warrant handcuffing passengers without other supporting evidence.

Defense attorneys on Thursday called it a right-to-privacy victory. Law-enforcement officers say it won't greatly affect the way they make arrests.

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On a recent evening in a University District alley, two men in sunglasses sat behind a card table loaded with red bins of alcohol swabs, hypodermic syringes, and other supplies for shooting up drugs. Every few minutes, someone would wander up the alley to turn in used needles, take a few items from the bins, and move on.

The table is King County's last privately operated needle-exchange site. But its clientele is growing faster than at any other site in the county.

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Seattle Police Tuesday Raided a University District Office Used by Medical-Marijuana Patients, but the Operator Says He Has Been Following State Law and the Authorities Were Overzealous.

Martin Martinez says his U District office was a mess after police searched it Tuesday afternoon, seizing marijuana and patient records.

Martin Martinez says the small, private collective and outreach group he runs from a University District storefront are legal, a place for medical-marijuana patients to get help growing the medicine they need to manage their pain.

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Police searched a medical marijuana cooperative in the University District on Tuesday evening, seizing 12 ounces of marijuana and more than 500 patient medical records, medical marijuana advocates said.

The search was carried out after police officers smelled the odor of marijuana on the street, entered the Life Vine cooperative on Northeast 50th Street and University Way Northeast and later obtained search warrants.

A spokesman at the King County Prosecutor's Office confirmed that a search was conducted but said a case hadn't been filed with the office.

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The loss of random drug testing for prep athletes and others is a setback, but schools still need a vigorous strategy to battle the problem.

When Bob Knight coached at Indiana University, he was invited to be a guest speaker at one of the state's high schools.

He talked a little about basketball, but mostly he talked about the problems young people face. Then he took questions.

One student stood up and asked Knight where he stood on random drug testing.

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Lake Stevens High School stops random drug tests for athletics and other activities.

The era of random drug testing at Lake Stevens High School is over.

The school board voted unanimously to end the controversial program this week. The school was one of just a few in the state to randomly test students who participated in sports and other extracurricular activities.

The school suspended drug testing in March when the Washington Supreme Court ruled that testing student athletes for drugs is unconstitutional.

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At least as long as President Bush is in charge, the federal government is unlikely to advance medicine's use of marijuana. Absent common sense leadership in the White House, Congress should force the Justice Department to abandon prosecutions of possession for medically prescribed marijuana in states that allow the compassionate use of the drug.

Bipartisan sponsors will try to win House approval for a measure to guarantee no such abusive prosecutions in this state and the others with medical marijuana laws. Reps. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., hope to amend a Justice Department spending bill to forbid use of any money for prosecuting patients using marijuana in those states.

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Advocate Aims to Clarify System for Legal Users

An Olympia man will open a resource center outside Olympia next month for patients who use medical marijuana and for those who want to learn more about the medicinal use of cannabis.

Jeremy Miller, 36, said he wants to help people navigate through the state's medical marijuana law that remains complex despite an effort last week by the state Department of Health to bring more clarity.

The opening of the resource center was "semi-inspired" by the agency's action and resulting need to educate people.

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The federal government is waging war on some of our most vulnerable citizens, who Washington voters have acted to protect. Soon, our congressional representatives will have the chance to stand up for those people -- seriously ill patients who need medical marijuana.

This is an issue we both know personally. One of us is a physician and researcher specializing in rehabilitation medicine and neuromuscular diseases such as ALS ("Lou Gehrig's disease"). The other is a cancer survivor who got through the nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy with the help of marijuana, and who has again found relief with marijuana from the chronic pain caused by injuries in a car accident.

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Six years ago, as director of the state's Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse, Ken Stark openly criticized Snohomish County officials for refusing to open methadone-treatment centers for the county's estimated 3,000 heroin addicts. Now he is taking over Snohomish County's Human Services department, in which he will oversee programs for substance abuse, mental health and homelessness.

Ken Stark wasn't the most popular man in Snohomish County six years ago.

As director of the state's Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse, Stark openly and repeatedly criticized elected county officials for refusing - for a decade - to open methadone-treatment centers for the county's estimated 3,000 heroin addicts.

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In response to Trudy Gonzalez-Polanco's June 25 letter, "Addictions are multiplying," addiction is usually not a problem unless the substance people are addicted to is illegal. Lots of people are addicted to products containing caffeine, myself included. I could quit if I wanted to, but I don't want to.

Addiction to coffee containing caffeine is affordable to most people. Almost nobody has to rob, steal or commit acts of prostitution to purchase coffee.

Criminalize coffee and the situation would soon change. Then coffee would be untaxed, unregulated and controlled by criminals and very expensive -- just like marijuana is today. How would coffee consumers feel if their beverage of choice was criminalized by our nanny-state government? Probably the same way marijuana consumers feel today.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.

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A proposal by state health officials to limit medical-marijuana patients to a pound and a half of pot plus a scattering of plants drew heat from both advocates and law enforcement -- but for different reasons.

Advocates had argued for more than 70 ounces of harvested marijuana and a 100-square-foot growing area; law-enforcement officials pushed for a limit of three ounces of harvested pot, three mature plants and six immature plants.

The official draft rule was released Tuesday by the state Department of Health. The department was directed by the Legislature last year to use medical and scientific information to define how much marijuana patients with certain chronic, fatal or debilitating diseases can possess under Washington's medical-marijuana law.

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Almost every day we read stories in The Herald about million dollar marijuana grow operations, or little mom and pop operations, and about how much we can allow a person to have, or how much the B.C. crop is going to be worth this year, and I just wonder - why?

Taxing and regulating marijuana, the most popular illicit drug, is a cost-effective alternative to a never-ending drug war.

As long as marijuana distribution remains in the hands of organized crime, consumers will continue to come into contact with sellers of hard drugs. This gateway is the direct result of a fundamentally flawed policy.

Given that marijuana is arguably safer than legal alcohol - the plant has never been shown to cause an overdose death - it makes no sense to waste tax dollars on failed policies that finance organized crime and facilitate the use of hard drugs.

Darral Good

Lynnwood

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Budget Cuts Threaten Money-Saving Drug Court

Joshua Wallace spent his days shooting drugs on downtown streets when police arrested him in 2005. Held in King County Jail for possessing a half-gram of methamphetamine, the homeless Wallace faced a maximum term of five years in prison. But three years later, at the age of 34, Wallace is out of jail, lives in his own apartment, and attends community college. He's clean. And he credits his recovery to King County's drug-diversion court.

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In 1968 I became, I suspect, the first person in Cowlitz County to publicly say we should legalize marijuana; 150 locals said via petition that I should be fired as a teacher.

No merchant wants to sell kids beer or cigarettes because it is not worth the hassle; he can make more money legally. If we totally ban booze and cigarettes, a new Al Capone will come along to bribe, kill and terrorize; total sin sales will fall very little.

PUD rate payers now learn that they financed two major marijuana operations, metal is being stolen, Mexican cops are being murdered, neighborhoods are being shot up, politicians, judges and cops are being bribed - all because America still thinks it can violate the law of supply and demand.

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Before State Lawmakers Try to Ban Salvia Divinorum I Decided to Try the Potent, Legal Psychedelic Myself

There are a lot of ways to get high. The world is filled with too many drugs to count. Both legal and illegal, daily existence offers us uppers, downers, pain relievers, and mind expanders at every turn. Everything from energy drinks to coffee, to cigarettes, to aspirin, to prescription antidepressants, to crack cocaine is available if we so desire.

Salvia divinorum fits in there somewhere. In a world full of drugs of every kind, Salvia divinorum (usually just referred to as Salvia or Sally D) is like few others. Legal in Washington and 42 other states, the leafy drug from the inconspicuous mint family packs a hallucinogenic punch that rivals any on the illegal market - from LSD to mushrooms. It can be found in varying strengths at a number of local head shops and is readily available for sale on the Internet.

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What constitutes a 60-day supply of medical marijuana?

That's the question officials at the state Department of Health are wrestling with as they comply with a state law requiring them to set the limit.

It's a tough decision, but one that rightfully belongs in the hands of health professionals.

The road that led to this juncture began in November 1998 when 58.9 percent of Washington voters approved Initiative 692. The ballot proposition permits the medical use of marijuana by patients with terminal or debilitating conditions. Nonmedical use of marijuana is still prohibited, but under I-692, physicians are authorized to advise patients about the risks and benefits of the medical use of marijuana. Qualifying patients and their primary caregivers are protected from prosecution if they possess marijuana solely for medical use by the patient.

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A 21-year-old Puyallup man who failed to help a 16-year-old girl who overdosed after taking Ecstasy was sentenced Wednesday to a year and a half in prison and intensive substance-abuse treatment.

David Morris apologized to Danielle McCarthy's family and friends during the Everett sentencing hearing, said Snohomish County Deputy Prosecutor Coleen St. Clair. Morris pleaded guilty in November to controlled-substance homicide.

In addition to prison time and drug treatment, Morris will serve a year and a half of probation.

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A Department of Health meeting with interest groups about a legal limit on medical-marijuana supplies has been opened for the public to observe from an separate room today.

The agency expects to miss its July 1 deadline for setting a limit for a 60-day supply for medical-marijuana users. But a draft rule is expected to be submitted by then for public hearings and rule-making later this summer, DOH spokesman Donn Moyer said.

Activists want to see a larger supply of pot allowed for patients under the 1998 voter-approved medical-marijuana law. But some expressed fears that state health regulators would meet behind closed doors with police and prosecutors to discuss a lower-than-appropriate limit.

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